Drilling plan zips through – almost

By JOE FOLLICK H-T Capital Bureau

Tuesday

Apr 28, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Pushing Florida closer than ever to a future of offshore oil drilling, the House approved a plan Monday that would allow four people to decide if drilling could occur as close as three miles from the state's beaches.

But just minutes after the plan was passed in the House, senators doused the idea, saying it was too complex and controversial to handle by Friday's scheduled end of this year's 60-day legislative session.

"That is really a significantly important issue and one that I think takes some serious review," said Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach. "I think it would be very difficult to imagine that's part of an endgame for this session."

And Gov. Charlie Crist said Monday that he was not willing to tie the oil drilling proposal to his own plan that would require 20 percent of Florida's power to come from renewable sources by 2020.

Lawmakers last week had suggested that House Republicans had created the oil drilling plan as a bargaining chip for Crist's conservation plan: If the Senate would approve the drilling bill, the House would allow Crist's initiative to slow global warming.

In the horse trading and wrangling that accompany the final days of a legislative session, anything is possible. But the Senate's dismissal of the bill immediately after the House's passage signaled the drilling bill may be dead just days after its birth.

With little warning, House Republicans sprung the plan last week that would allow the four officials elected statewide -- the governor and three Cabinet members -- to have final authority to approve the leasing of state lands between 3 and 10 miles offshore for oil drilling.

The bill was supported by Texas-based oil lobbyists and has already been backed with TV commercials and newspaper ads. For more than an hour, Monday's debate assumed an air of history as lawmakers passionately set the four-day-old bill against a tableau of international politics. Supporters said the state and country need to rely on local sources of oil and lessen reliance on overseas countries.

"A vote for this bill is a vote for America. It's a vote for our way of life," said Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker. "A vote against this bill is a vote for OPEC and to live under their guidance."

Opponents said that even the most optimistic projections showed drilling in Florida's waters would provide a few months' worth of oil or gas, take years to extract and lower prices by a few cents per gallon at best.

"People come literally from all over the world to visit our beaches," said Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota, who called the offshore oil drilling so close to Florida's beaches a "stake in the heart of the economy in my district.

"Every time we have a red tide bloom, we lose reservations all across the region," Fitzgerald added. "Just the smallest of oil spills will send people elsewhere."

House Republicans invoked the stance of President Barack Obama's push for less reliance on foreign oil.

Rep. Kurt Kelly, R-Ocala, said Louisiana, Texas and other Gulf states have balanced tourism and oil drilling.

"I believe we need to say 'Yes we can' have a vital tourist industry but also recover the resources that come off of our shores," said Kelly.

Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, said that stiffening auto mileage standards for just 10 percent of Florida's cars would save as much gas as would ever be produced in the Gulf of Mexico.

"All this (bill) does is allow the oil companies to hoard," Randolph said. "Let's talk about a real energy policy in the state, not just fossil fuel drilling."